Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to speed up Germany's transition to electric vehicles, saying in an interview on Wednesday that efforts would need to be increased if a target of having a million such cars on the roads by 2020 were to be met. With Germany's largest industry struggling to mend its reputation after a diesel emissions scandal, Merkel said comments she had made in May had been misinterpreted as meaning she had abandoned the electrification target. "I haven't abandoned the target," she said in the interview on YouTube, six weeks before a federal election.

Germany must exert pressure on auto companies to accelerate the transition to electric cars, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday as German firms try to mend their reputation after a diesel emissions ...